International contracting, building and construction firms are fiercely competing to penetrate into the highly lucrative Saudi market, which is characterized by an average 28 percent annual growth rate, reported Al-Hayat .
An American consortium has recently won a 13 billion Saudi Riyal ($3.4 billion) tender to build 3,000 schools in Saudi Arabia based on the Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) system.
The need to supply housing to the rapidly growing local population on the one hand and the need to expand the major urban cities on the other make the local construction sector highly attractive.
More than 500 building companies from 20 countries have so far confirmed their participation in the 2001 Saudi Construction Exhibition. — (Mena Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
